GARLIC

I read elsewhere that folk are vying for the earliest garlic. Some boast about early autumn planting & 6" growth already. Others are happy to wait for the March/April bracket advocated by Dobies etc with their bulbs.

Interesting that the professionals - eg 'reallygarlicky' - are excitingly showing their first growth from autumn planting? So I went to check ours & hey! (as they say) it's just showing!!

Sooooooooooooo.... I've never tried to grow garlic Tim. Can you give me any pointers? Ian uses a lot of garlic when he cooks and it would be lovely to have our own fresh stuff here instead of simply buying it from a supermarket. Is it invasive? Can I grow it in pots as I don't have much room left in the garden.

My garlic is way through. It made very rapid growth after a November planting. However, we are in the tropcial climes of Essex where I have strawberry plants on the allotment in flower!

I am only growing solent white this time as I find in my white rot infested soil it seems to cope the best and provide me with lovely big cloves. What variety are you growing Tim?

It isn't at all invasive Eileen, you just seperate the individual cloves and plant in prepared ground about...that deep....hehehe. I suppose mine went in a couple of inches down. They are rather boring plants above ground, similar to an onion, a group or strappy leaves, but underground, if everything is equal, that single clove will be bulking up, then lots of lovely new cloves grow to grow into a lovely big bulb!

I believe you can plant garlic up until March time. Planted in January means they were exposed to cold, which helps them divide up into cloves. I reakon, as the days start to warm, and are lighter for longer, they will be up in no time. I get impatient and end up rooting around to check they haven't rotted, but even in my cold wet Essex clay, they are fine.